The present invention relates to a flat display device having beam guides, and particularly to a beam guide assembly which can be easily assembled and mounted in the display device envelope.
There has been developed a flat display device which includes an evacuated envelope having substantially flat, spaced front and back walls and spaced, parallel support walls extending between the front and back walls. The support walls form a plurality of parallel channels extending across the front and back walls. A gun structure extends across one end of the channels and is adapted to generate electrons and direct the electrons as beams into the channels. In each of the channels is at least one beam guide which confines the electrons in the beam as the beam flows along the channels but which permits the beam to be deflected toward a phosphor screen on the surface of the front wall at a plurality of points along the channel. Such a display device is described in the copending application for U.S. Patent of C. H. Anderson et al, Ser. No. 615,353, filed Sept. 22, 1975, entitled "Guided Beam Flat Display Device", now U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,582 of June 7, 1977.
One type of beam guide which has been developed for use in a display device includes a pair of spaced, parallel plates extending transversely across and longitudinally along the channels in closely spaced relation to the back wall. The plates have a plurality of openings therethrough which are arranged in rows both longitudinally along and transversely across the plates. The openings in one of the plates are in alignment with the openings in the other plate. Each longitudinal row of openings is a separate beam guide. On the inner surface of the back wall are a plurality of spaced, parallel conductors which extend transversely across the channels. Each of the conductors extends along a separate transverse row of the openings in the plates. This beam guide and its operation is described in the copending application for U.S. Patent of W. W. Siekanowicz et al, Ser. No. 671,358, filed Mar. 29, 1976, entitled "Flat Display Device With Beam Guide".
For the commercial production of the above described type of display device it is desirable to be able to quickly and easily assemble the various elements of the device with high precision. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a beam guide assembly of the type described above which can be easily and quickly assembled and mounted in the envelope with high precision and uniformity of the spacing between the plates, of the spacing between the plates and the conductors on the back wall and of the alignment of the plates from one channel to the next.